“If I were labor minister, I would take unemployment studies and invest in development programs in fields in which unemployment was low and make money from informal labor. I saw that there were training programs made in areas where unemployment was high. So people are being trained to become unemployed? We don’t connect reality to actions, this is the main problem,” said Marcu, who oversees the human resource policies of the largest mobile telephony operator on the local market, which has 2,800 employees.
According to her, the main problems on the labor market are not linked to the legislation, but rather to implementation, and authorities should work closer with the private sector and look for practical measures to improve the situation on the labor market.
“I would also get money from informal labor; I would invest a lot in inspections and raise money that could later be invested. But this means hiring more inspectors, better qualified and better paid ones, who would care more about professional ethics. Why not impose a rule that a portion of inspectors’ salaries would fluctuate based on how many fines they give and on how much money they recoup.”
Informal labor is one of the most controversial issues that affects the labor market because at a working age population (people able to work) of 10 million residents, there are only 4.2 million employees.
Although it is not known how many employees work illegally, official estimates range between one million and 3 million people. Despite work inspectors performing better in terms of the fines given last year for informal work, which amounted to EUR23.5 million in the first 11 months of the year (up 126%) on the preceding year), a labor inspector with over 25 years’ experience still earns only around EUR500-EUR600 per month.
In the European Union, a labor inspector who investigates informal work earns between EUR5,000 and EUR7,000 after tax per month.
Problems on the labor market can also be solved through initiatives that could be implemented by the Education Ministry, Ioana Marcu adds.
“The good thing is that a hierarchy of universities has been made and each employer knows where to recruit. But people should be helped to hire in the areas where they need to hire. Why aren’t there IT training programs in high schools, for instance?” She says school should know what direction to point students in.
Universities churn out 3,000-3,500 IT graduates per year, a sector in which employers make available hundreds of jobs per year in Bucharest alone.
Orange has recruited over 130 people since the beginning of this year and continues to hire, while also continuing internship programs for young people.
“We are recruiting several hundred employees this year for Orange Romania on the one hand and for the shared services segment, on the other (new IT & Technology services for France Telecom).”
Last year Orange Romania hired around 400 new people and this year the company representatives expect to recruit a similar number of people, with personnel fluctuation within the company being around 10%.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)